Change
In philosophy, change refers to a difference in a state of affairs at different points in time. The Presocratic philosopher Heraclitus was the first to deal with the matter of change, stating that "One cannot step into the same river twice," as the river will have changed after the person has stepped into it the first time. History ]]The Greek Presocratic philosopher Heraclitus was the first known philosopher to discuss change, stating that "a man cannot step in the same river twice." After a person steps in a river, the waters are very slightly changed, and its state before the person stepped into it has changed since the person stepped in the river. Parmenides and the Eleatics raised a number of profound problems which caused them to conclude that change was impossible, that change was one and unchanging. Parmenides considered the very notion of non-existence to be absurd, believing that "from nothing comes nothing". The more radical point was that something was not material, but just a general predicate; Parmenides rejected changes in coloring, as the new color comes into existence from nothing. Parmenides' follower Zeno of Elea argued that, in order to move from A to B, one must make it halfway from A to B, and halfway to that half, and so on, believing that motion would consist of an infinite number of steps; this, he held, was impossible. The Eleatic view has since been defeated by future philosophers, with the atomism of Democritus responding to the Eleatic notion that change is impossible. Democritus hypothesized that every visible object was composite of several unseen, eternal objects (atoms). Anaxagoras argued that a number of eternal primal ingredients mixed together in a continuum would make up objects; Aristotle accepted this view. No material object was made of a pure ingredient, instead consisting of various. Ship of Theseus The problem of change and identity is present in the "Ship of Theseus". In ancient times, there was a ship named for King Theseus of Athens, and the ship became weak over the years. Its old boards were replaced with new ones and its mast was replaced with a new one, and it had all new boards and masts within 50 years. Philosophers questioned whether the same ship that was in the harbor 50 years ago was the same ship, as it had completely changed. This applies to humans, as people change a lot between their teenage years and when they grow up. There has to be one person who underwent the change, meaning that the person has always existed, instead with changing properties; this is Anaxagoras' continuum, confirmed by Aristotle. The idea of continuity - of time being a continuum and of an object being continuous - is an answer to the issue, as is the argument that the completely-changed ship is no longer the Theseus. If everyone purchased the old ship's materials (kept in a warehouse) and built a ship according to the same plans as the original Theseus, some could argue that this third ship is the real Theseus. There is the question of whether or not the third, reconstructed ship is the same as the original (pre-renovation) Theseus is the same, or whether the original Theseus is the same as the renovated ship. The main question is: how could anybody say that the renovated Theseus or the reconstructed Theseus is the same as ship one, when that would mean that the two newer ships are the same? Whenever one makes an identity claim, claiming that two things are the same, one almost always makes two different descriptions. The two new ships are one and the same thing under two different descriptions. Gottfried Leibniz came up with a solution to the problem, known as "Leibniz's Law". It argues that some ships are the same if they have the same properties or relations. Whether the ship is the same or not depends on the purpose of the word "same"; if the original ship was stolen property, and the owner demanded that it be returned, which ship would be returned to him? The original owner would be entitled to the third ship, as he did not purchase the materials for Ship 2. However, if the crew of the renovated ship remained the same as the original ship, the admiral would recognize the renovated ship as the Theseus. In addition, the history of the ship could continue with any of the ships, as objects can be considered the "same" for one purpose, yet different for another. Responses to the Problem of Identity Common sense tells us that objects persist over time, and that there is some sense in which "you are the same person that you were yesterday." This means that a person may be able to step into the same river twice. There are two rival theories for how this happens: endurantism and perdurantism. Endurantists hold that the whole object exists at each moment of its history, existing at each moment. Perdurantists believe objects are four-dimensional entitites (including time), made up of a series of parts (like frames of a movie). The essential point is that of continuity in time; of continuous existence over the duration of a person or object's existence. For example, George Washington, as a boy, cut down a cherry tree; he became a general in his middle years; and he became President of the United States as an old man. There are changes between the three stages, including mental development. However, the president remembers the general, who remembers the boy who cut down the tree. It is memory that forms the links in the chain, despite physical and mental differences. All three, then, identify themselves as the same person. The molecules that make up a person almost completely change over the years, but the person remains the same. There is the question of how the old woman in 1998 is the same person as a little girl in 1920, as they share very few molecules. According to quantum physics, individual molecules have no identity, with every electron being the same. Therefore, any electron can interchange with another without visible changes. This means that any real object can never remain the same. Causality 's "Four Causes"]]Causality, also referred to as causation or cause-and-effect, is the natural and worldly agency that connects the cause with the effect, where the first is partly responsible for the second, and the second is partly caused by the first. A process has many causal factors, with an effect being a cause or causal factor for all other effects in the future; metaphysically speaking, causality is prior to time and space. It is an abstraction to indicate how the world progresses, basically explaining change. Causality is implicit in the logic and structure of ordinary language. The word "cause" is also used to mean "explanation". Aristotle's "Four Causes" were: material (out of which the thing exists), formal (the form in which the thing is arranged), efficient (the mover that causes the thing to be or happen), and final (the purpose for which the thing exists). The cause is the explanation for what is to be explained, and failure to recognize that there are different kinds of causes would lead to a futile debate. A cause and its effect can be of different kinds of entity. In Aristotle's efficient causal explanation, an action can be a cause, while an enduring object can be its effect; the generative actions of Socrates' parents can be regarded as the efficient cause, with Socrates being the effect. Aristotelianism ]]Aristotle explained causes with his "Four Causes" (material, formal, efficient, and final). Material is the material composition of an object; formal is the structure; efficient is the object's dynamics, and final is the criteria of completion. In some works of Aristotle, these causes are listed as the "essential cause", the "logical cause", the "moving cause", and the "final clause". Aristotle added a fifth element to Empedocles' elements of earth, air, fire, and water: ether. For Aristotle's the Earth's center was the motionless center of the universe. As air did not escape Earth, while achieving infinite spread and absurdity, Aristotle argued that space was limited, and that the fifth element of "Ether" filled space and composed celestial bodies, and moved in perpetual circles. This view was formalized by the astronomer Ptolemy, and persisted until Nicolaus Copernicus. This was an attempt to explain how Earth's atmosphere remained in place. Thomism ]]In line with Aristotelian cosmology, Thomas Aquinas proposed a hierarchy of Aristotle's four causes. He sought to identify the first efficeint cause, now referred to simply as the "first cause": God. Later in the Middle Ages, many scholars identified the first cause as God, but they sought the freedom to investigate the numerous man-made, secondary "proximate causes". After the Middle Ages, the meaning of cause lost its broad meaning, becoming just one of the four kinds: the moving cause. David Hume assumed this narrowed definition, denying that humans could ever perceive cause and effect, except by developing a habit or custom of mind. In A Treatise of Human Nature, there were eight ways of judging if things can be cause and effect: #Cause and effect must be contiguous in space and time. #The cause must be prior to the effect. #There must be a constant union (a necessary connection) between the cause and effect. #The same cause always produces the same effect, and the same effect never arises from the same cause. #Hanging upon the above, where several different objects produce the same effect, it must be means of some quality which must discover to become and amongst them. There must be something in common amongst the plurality of causes. #It must be founded on some reason. #When any object increases or diminishes, with the increase or diminution of its causes, it should be regarded as a compounded effect, derived from the union of several different effects. #An object which exists for any time in its full perfection without any effect is not the sole cause of the effect, but is assisted by another principle. Immanuel Kant ran into a problem with his theory of the mind envisioning our objective knowledge of extramental reality. Intuitions and categories are entirely disparate, but they can interact (according to the transcendental schema) by providing a priori principles. All the principles are temporarily bound, making them apply for all times. Principles such as substance endure through time, and cause is also always prior to the effect. In 1949, the physicist Max Born distinguished determination from causality. For him, determination meant that actual events are so linked by laws of nature that certainly reliable predictions and retrodictions can be made from present data without them. For him, there were two kinds of causation: nomic and generic. The former (nomic) means that cause and effect are linked by certain or probable laws, corresponding to the third of Hume's criterion (there must be a constant union between cause and effect). The latter, singular causation, is a particular occurrence of a definite complex of events that are physically linked by antecedents and continuity, corresponding to the first two of Hume's criteria. Types of causes There are several types of causes: necessary causes, sufficient causes, and contributory causes (which requires neither necessary or sufficient causes). If x is a necessary cause of y, then y implies the occurrence of x, but not vice-versa. You cannot have y without x, but x does not mean that y wil occur. If x is a sufficient cause of y, then the presence of x implies the occurrence of y, but another cause, z, may alternately cause y; z could be the cause, rather than x. Contributory causes are among several co-causes, with all of them contributing to an effect. There is no implication that a contributory cause is necessary, although it may be so. It is commonly known that smoking causes lung cancer, but there are other risk factors, of which it is one of several; lung cancer is therefore a contributory cause. The result comes from the interaction of all of the factors. Category:Philosophy